October Tenth
by Demon Flame
Summary: "A birthday is a time you and your family celebrate the day you were born... how can you forget?" "I dont have a family."


Naruto ran as fast as he could to the bridge where team seven usually met up with Kakashi, their sensei. He didn't know why he was rushing the man was always an hour late at the very least, but he was running just the same. He had woken up later then he planned and in doing so, he didn't have enough time to find all his clothes, his blindingly orange jacket to be specific. So he was just wearing his orange pants and his black t-shirt along with his sandals and ninja gear.

He finally skidded to a halt where his teammates Sasuke and Sakura were waiting. Sasuke was leaning against the railing of the bridge, doing his best to ignore their female comrade. Sakura had been attempting to flirt casually with the last of the Uchiha but when Naruto came into her line of sight she started on her next favorite past time of reprimanding him. Naruto didn't know why she liked to yell at him so much but she did, best he could figure was that it was some sort of therapeutic technique that had been passed down mother to daughter for all of time.

After her rant she turned her attention back to Sasuke who ignored her. Naruto was just about to ask Sakura if she wanted to grab lunch together but was interrupted by a puff of smoke and an annoyingly indifferent ninja appeared.

"Sorry but I ran into this little old lady who needed help carrying her luggage." He said with one hand scratching the back of his head.

"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura screamed in unison. It had become routine for Kakashi to make up some ridiculous story and then for him and Sakura to call him on it immediately.

He let out a nervous chuckle before resuming his usual demeanor and turned to Naruto. "Happy Birthday Naruto." He said.

This caught the team off guard. "Huh?" Naruto said, not sure he had heard right.

"I said," Kakashi repeated. "Happy birthday. October tenth is your birthday, isn't it?" he said with a slight raised eyebrow.

Was it his birthday already? If he was going to be truthful to himself, he honestly hadn't even known it was October yet. "Oh yeah." He said. "I guess I forgot." He took a moment longer to commit to his memory that he was now thirteen and not twelve before preparing himself for their mission today.

"How can you forget it's your birthday?" Sakura screeched with her hands on her hips.

"I dunno, I just forgot." He said shrugging his shoulders. He never saw why everyone always got so excited about birthdays; it just meant you were another year older. It wasn't like there was anything special about birthdays anyway.

"Sometimes Naruto, I wonder how you even became a ninja in the first place." She said rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest as she turned away from him. Kakashi and Sasuke, however, were giving the knuckleheaded ninja a curious look.

"What's so special about birthdays anyway?" he asked confused to her anger.

She turned back around and fixed him with a glare that clearly said she thought he was being stupid and that she wasn't amused by it at all. "Your birthday is the day you and your family celebrate the day you were born and you get presents and cake." She said snottily.

Oh, well that clears up that mystery then, he thought. He didn't have family so there was no reason to celebrate anything, besides the nine-tailed fox was sealed inside of him exactly thirteen years ago today. Another reason not to celebrate. "I don't have any family." He said quietly.

He wasn't really ashamed of the fact, he was used to it and so he didn't look away when he reminded her of this little fun fact about him. Sakura did look away in embarrassment. "Oh I'm sorry Naruto, I forgot." She told him softly.

"Well it looks like I'm not the only one who forgets things around here." He told her trying to lighten the mood. "So are we training or do we have another mission today?" he asked Kakashi. The other three members of team seven readily took the change of subject as they talked about what they would be doing today.

Naruto just couldn't get into his training; his thoughts were on what Sakura had said earlier. He knew that she really was sorry for what she had said and it didn't really hurt that much but it had gotten him thinking. He hadn't thought what it would be like to have parents for years now, he had just gotten tired of wishing for something he knew he would never have so why waste time and pain over it. He had asked the old man if he had ever had parents once but he had been vague and said that they had died in the Kyuubi attack.

He reasoned that they must have been ninja then but the Hokage wouldn't go into any more detail and wouldn't even tell him their names. So after asking a few more people he had just given up and pushed the thoughts from his mind. But now they were back and he couldn't get rid of them so at the end of training he had excused himself early and had eventually convinced Sakura that he didn't want them to take him out for his birthday even if it was for ramen.

He had a formulated a plan during training. He could find out his parents name without having to go through files and getting caught by the Hokage. He would go to the memorial stone next to the training ground that team seven had first met at. He remembered that his sensei had told them all that the names carved on that stone were people who had died in action so his parents had to be on there and they should be pretty easy to find because Uzumaki wasn't exactly a common last name. As far as he knew he was the only one with that last name in the entire village.

So he raced to the black stone, glad that when he finally reached it there wasn't anyone around. He searched for twenty minutes until his eyes landed on the name of Minato Namikaze, otherwise known as The Fourth Hokage. He didn't really know how he felt about him; at first he had idolized the man for saving the village until he learned that he had trapped the demon beast inside of Naruto's newborn body. He eventually learned to respect the man again, it was the way of the shinobi after all. The Fourth had died sealing the demon inside of Naruto to save the whole village and had requested that he be a hero. It wasn't his fault the villagers had disregarded his last wish so how could Naruto hold this against him when he aspired to be a Hokage himself?

Naruto let his eyes travel to the name directly below the Fourths name, Kushina Uzumaki. Excitement rose in him, an Uzumaki! Was this his mother, his aunt, maybe even grandmother? It was the only Uzumaki he saw on the entire stone so maybe she was related to him. He searched the stone over two more times but didn't see a male Uzumaki, so then maybe this Kushina person was his mother and had had him out of wedlock.

He went back to the name, engraving it into his mind, this Kushina Uzumaki was his only lifeline to any sort of family, and she had to be. Now he just needed to know who the hell she was. Would there be records of her? What if she wasn't related to him at all and it was only a coincidence that they shared the same last name? Again he wondered why his past was kept such a secret, he already knew about the fox so why bother hiding anything else.

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a presence beside him; he turned to see Kakashi-sensei standing next to him looking at the stone as well. He needed to think up a lie of why he was here and think it up quick; he couldn't have Kakashi reporting back to the old man that he was trying to find out about his parents.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" he asked, forcing an easy going tone into his voice.

"Just come to pay my respects." He said, his eyes never leaving the stone. "What are you doing here?"

"You know the same." He said in a pathetic attempt to lie.

"And who do you know on this stone?" he asked.

Kakashi wasn't exactly young so maybe he knew Kushina; there was no harm in asking anyway. "Well you know how Sakura said you're supposed to spend time with your family on your birthday?" he started, not looking at his sensei and missing him suddenly tense his body. "Well no one ever told me who my parents were so I just kinda forgot about them, but then I remembered old man Hokage had said they died during the nine-tails attack so I thought maybe their names would be on the memorial stone." He said hurriedly.

There was a moment's pause before Kakashi spoke. "And did you find their names?"

Naruto frowned. "Well I found Kushina Uzumaki, but I have no idea who she is." He finally managed to turn to his sensei. "Did you know her?" he asked.

There was a very long pause where all that could be heard was the sound of the wind. "No." he said apathetically.

"Oh." Was all Naruto could manage to say. His life line was slipping through his fingers; maybe he didn't have a family after all. He pushed back the sadness that threatened to overwhelm him and forced a smile as blinding as the sun on his face. "Oh well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow Kakashi-sensei." He said and left the silver haired ninja to himself.

Kakashi stood there for about ten more minutes, staring at the two names. Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. He reached out and brushed his fingers across their names. "I'm sorry." He whispered before pulling his hand back and leaving. He wondered if Naruto would ever get to know who his parents were. A small smile graced his lips under his mask as he thought about how Naruto would probably think that his father being the Fourth Hokage meant that he was destined to be the next Hokage. He may look like Kakashi's sensei but he had his mother's personality through and through.


End file.
